Sheerness has some trade in corn and seed,, and there is steamboat connexion with Port Victoria, on the opposite side of the Medway; with Southend, on the opposite side of the Thames; and with Chatham and London, and the town is in some favour as a seaside resort.

GEORGE OF PODEBRAD (1420-1471), king of Bohemia, was the son of Victoria of Kunstat and Podebrad, a Bohemian nobleman, who was one of the leaders of the "Orphans" or modern Taborites during the Hussite wars.

The Bowling Associations of Victoria and New South Wales were established in 1880, and it was not until 1892 that the Scottish Bowling Association was founded.

See William Molyneux, History of Burton-on-Trent (1869); Victoria County History, Staffordshire.

The principal buildings are the town hall, the county buildings, the assembly rooms, occupying the site of an old Franciscan monastery, three hospitals, a convalescent home, the Smyllum orphanage and the Queen Victoria Jubilee fountain.

See Victoria County History, Suffolk; E.

These were referred to the arbitration of Queen Victoria, and, after a careful survey under the direction of Sir Thomas H.

These minor ranges, excepting the Zenta, are separated from the Andean masses by comparatively low depressions and are usually described as distinct ranges; topographically, however, they seem to form a continuation of the ranges running southward from the Santa Victoria and forming the eastern rampart of the great central plateau of which the Puna de Atacama covers a large part.

It was continued by Mademoiselle de Montpensier in the latter half of the 17th century, and restored by Louis Philippe who, in 1843 and 1845, received Queen Victoria within its walls.

In Victoria the greatest elevation is reached in the peaks of Mount Bogong (6508 ft.) and Mount Feathertop (6303 ft.), both of which lie north of the Dividing Range; in the main range Mount Hotham (6100 ft.) and Mount Cobberas (6025 ft.) are the highest summits.

As the tableland runs northward it decreases both in height and width, until it narrows to a few miles only, with an elevation of scarcely 1500 ft.; under the name of the Blue Mountains the plateau widens again and increases in altitude, the chief peaks being Mount Clarence(4000 ft.), Mount Victoria (3525 ft.), and Mount Hay (3270 ft.).

The Victoria river is navigable for large vessels for a distance of about 43 m.

The Fitzmaurice, discharging into the estuary of the Victoria, is also a large stream.

It consists in the main of an Archean block or " coign,"which still occupies nearly the whole of the western half of the continent, outcrops in north-eastern Queensland, forms the foundation of southern New South Wales and eastern Victoria, and is exposed in western Victoria, in Tasmania, and in the western flank of the Southern Alps of New Zealand.

A narrow Cambrian sea must have extended across central Australia from the Kimberley Goldfield in the north-west, through Tempe Downs and the Macdonnell chain in central Australia, to the South Australian highlands, central Victoria at Mansfield, and northern Tasmania.

The Silurian system was marked by the retreat of the sea from central Australia; but the sea still covered a band across Victoria, from the coast to the Murray basin, passing to the east of Melbourne.

This Silurian sea was less extensive than the Ordovician in Victoria; but it appears to have been wider in New South Wales and in Queensland.

The mountains both in Victoria and New South Wales were snow-capped, and glaciers flowed down their flanks and laid down Carboniferous glacial deposits, which are still preserved in basins that flank the mountain ranges, such as the famous conglomerates of Bacchus Marsh, Heathcote and the Loddon valley in Victoria, and cf Branxton and other localities in New South Wales.

These movements in the south-east formed the Great Valley of Victoria, which traverses nearly the whole of the state between the Victorian highlands to the north, and the Jurassic sandstones of the Otway Ranges and the hills of south Gippsland.

The first eruptions piled up huge domes of lavas rich in soda, including the geburite-dacites and sOlvsbergites of Mount Macedon in Victoria, and the kenyte and tephrite domes of Dunedin, in New Zealand.

These rocks were followed by the outpouring of the extensive older basalts in the Great Valley of Victoria and on the highlands of eastern Victoria, and also in New South Wales and Queensland.

Farther east the sea was interrupted by the still existing land-connexion between Tasmania and Victoria; but beyond it, the marine deposits are found again, fringing the coasts of eastern Gippsland and Croajingolong.

Tasmania and Victoria were separated by the foundering of Bass Strait, and at the same time the formation of the rift valley of Spencer Gulf, and Lake Torrens, isolated the South Australian highlands from the Eyre Peninsula and the Westralian plateau.

No part of Victoria and very little of Queensland and New South Wales lie within this area.

From the coast, as well as the western and northern portions of Victoria and South Australia south of the Murray.

The climate of Victoria does not differ greatly from that of New South Wales.

Ballarat, the second city of Victoria, lies above 100 m.

At the census of 1901, 48,248 aborigines were enumerated, of whom 7434 were in New South Wales, 652 in Victoria, 27,123 in South Australia, and 6212 in Western Australia.

Chinese, numbering about 30,000, are chiefly found in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, and the Northern Territory.

The distribution of population at the close of 1906 (4,118,000) was New South Wales 1,530,000, Victoria 1,223,000, Queensland 534,000, South Australia 381,000, Western Australia 270,000, Tasmania 180,000.

The rate of increase since the previous census was 1.5% per annum, varying from 0.31 in Victoria to 2 06 in New South Wales and 6.9 in Western Australia.

The statutory ages differ in the various states; in New South Wales and Western Australia it is from 6 to 13 years inclusive, in Victoria 6 to 12 years, in Queensland 6 to II years, and in South Australia 7 to 12 years inclusive.

The chief wheat lands are in Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales; the yield averages about 9 bushels to the acre; this low average is due to the endeavour of settlers on new lands to cultivate larger areas than their resources can effectively deal with; the introduction of scientific farming should almost double the yield.

The vine is cultivated in all the states, but chiefly in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales.

Tobacco thrives well in New South Wales and Victoria, but kinds suitable for exportation are not largely grown.

The greatest development of quartz reefing is found in Victoria, some of the mines being of great depth.

Deep. In the Victoria mine a depth of 3750 ft.

The yield of tin in Victoria is very small, and until lately no fields of importance have been discovered; but towards the latter end of 1890 extensive deposits were reported to exist in the Gippsland district - at Omeo and Tarwin.

In Victoria the production of antimony gave employment in 1890 to 238 miners, but owing to the low price of the metal, production has almost ceased.

In Queensland the fields were all showing development in 1891, when the output exhibited a very large increase compared with that of former years; but, as in the case of Victoria, the production of the metal seems to have ceased.

Manganese probably exists in all the states, deposits having been found in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia, the richest specimens being found in New South Wales.

Wolfram (tungstate of iron and manganese) occurs in some of the states, notably in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and Queensland.

Molybdenum, in the form of molybdenite (sulphide of molybdenum), is found in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, associated in the parent state with tin and bismuth in quartz reefs.